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Fleet insider

Million Miler
Keith Loging, a driver with Minnesota-based truckload carrier Transport America, recently received the company’s One Million Mile Accident-Free Safety Award. Loging began driving for Transport America more than 11 years ago after leaving his family’s dairy farm to attend truck driving school. For the past seven years, he has served as one of the company’s driver instructors.

Pay Raises
All Freight Systems raised its pay from 88 cents per mile to 91 cents per mile for owner-operators. The 3-cent increase is paid on all miles, loaded and unloaded. For drivers who choose to base their pay on percentage of load revenue instead of mileage rate, this translates to 70 percent outbound and 80 percent inbound pay on all freight.

Transport America, a Minnesota-based truckload carrier, began increasing its owner-operator pay last month. By Nov. 1, it will pay 92 cents per mile on all miles, loaded and empty.
Transport America also pays drivers 100 percent of the fuel surcharge they collect from their customers on both loaded and unloaded miles.

Iowa-based Heartland Express has raised pay for company drivers in its Jacksonville, Fla., region to 43 cents per mile. The company operates nine regional terminals including Jacksonville.

Heartland recently increased pay for drivers who have the hazmat endorsement by a penny per mile for all dispatch miles hazardous or not. They are also increasing their OTR driver pay by 4 cents in 2006, making the top driver pay 50 cents per mile.

Greensboro, N.C.-based Epes Transport System announced owner-operator teams will be paid $1.10 per mile, plus a fuel surcharge of 23.8 cents per mile. Company driver team pay is 50 cents per mile, plus a 2-cent safety bonus, a guaranteed minimum $1,000 per-week paycheck and home weekends.

Drivers of the Month
Decker Truck Line has selected James Rowe as the May 2006 Driver of the Month for the flatbed division. Darrel Schaffner was chosen as May Driver of the Month for the reefer/van division.

The 2005 Driver of the Year for the flatbed division, Rowe has been with Decker since October 2002. He and his family live in Marseilles, Ill.

Schaffner is a company driver who resides in Fort Dodge, Iowa, with his wife, Karen. He has more than 30 years of service with Decker, beginning his career with the company in 1975. He is also a member of the company’s Million Mile Team, achieving the 2-million-mile mark without a preventable accident.

PTL Drivers
Paschall Truck Lines recently awarded drivers David Molesworth and Mark Hatfield with the March Driver of the Month awards. A veteran driver with 29 years experience, Molesworth was named the Company Driver of the Month. He has won previous awards for Driver of the Month and Driver of the Year.

Hatfield, who has been driving for four years, was Owner-Operator of the Month. His previous awards include a 600,000 Safe Driving Mile award and Owner-Operator of the Month in February 2005.

Dart Joins AMBER Network
If an Amber Alert is issued for a missing or endangered child, Dart Transit Co. drivers will know about it.

The carrier is joining forces with other carriers as part of the AMBER Alert Highway Network. A partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Qualcomm Inc., the Amber system is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement agencies, broadcasters and transportation agencies. The program issues public bulletins in child abduction cases.

The AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) program was launched in 1997 following the abduction of a 9-year-old Texas girl. In its nine years, the program has assisted in recovering 260 abducted children.

Veteran Scholarships
H.O. Wolding, a short, regional and long-haul trucking firm, is offering 50 $500 CDL school scholarships to veterans interested in a trucking career. The first 50 veterans who earn their CDLs at Wolding-approved schools and are hired by the company will qualify for these scholarships.

According to Marc Wolding, vice president of operations, the company is extending this opportunity to honor veterans and to add to its team of experienced professional drivers to meet current and future growth opportunities.

Wolding says the company offers both competitive compensation and secure employment. “Our drivers average $50,000 per year in earnings with some making more than $70,000 a year, and in our 73 years in business we’ve never had a single layoff,” he says.

Carrier Awards
Ryder System has announced its top carrier selections for the 2005 Ryder Carrier Quality Award. Ryder places more than $2 billion of its customers’ freight on selected carriers in all modes of transportation.